10 Modem Jewellery and Art. 



ment, was pared away on the edges, leaving long round- 

 topped grains between, and on the side facets of the stones. 

 All ornaments alike were subjected to this treatment, which 

 gave a rounded appearance to the work, and destroyed all 

 outline. This style of setting is described as " cut down," from 

 the manner in which it is effected, and the Englishman was 

 proud of his " cutting down." " Thread setting," on the 

 contrary, preserves a fine filet, or line of silver on the outer 

 edge of the portion of the leaf or flower, the sharp outline 

 of which it is desired to preserve, and by a judicious use of 

 the two methods, an admirable degree of relief is given to the 

 whole ornament. 



The advance of the Viennese in their search for art in the 

 footsteps of nature led to most important results. The simple 

 grass leaves were succeeded by foliage of a more ornate cha- 

 racter ; flowers of most complex construction were made the 

 prominent features in the tiara, the brooch, or the stomacher, 

 till no object was considered too difficult of imitation in the 

 plastic silver, to be afterwards encrusted with diamonds so 

 thickly as to leave little but a shell or skin of the original 

 material to bind them together. It may truly be said that 

 jewellery, in its employment of the diamond chiefly, attained 

 perfection in these floral ornaments. The taste of the 

 draughtsman and the modeller, and the skill of the workman, 

 were combined to produce them, and the result was the 

 creation of works of true art. Many of the best specimens of 

 this class of workmanship were made in London, but, it must 

 also be said, by foreign artizans, chiefly French and German. 

 The style of the present day is no longer the same, but the 

 skill and the taste remain, although scarcely employed so 

 advantageously. The fashion of the moment runs in favour of 

 a species of Arabesque or Byzantine interlaced work, to which 

 it would be very difficult to give a name, but which is effective 

 in so far that it allows of the massing of stones on a rounded 

 surface, broken up by narrow interstices, and a few gems are 

 made to produce the dazzling effect of many. Diamond-work 

 finds a further development in simple five-pointed stars, placed 

 at intervals on an interlaced band. 



There is little to be said for the goldsmith's handicraft 

 from the time of Elizabeth to within the last half century. 

 The old skill and artistic aptitude of the workman, derived 

 from Italy, and developed under the Tudors, did not imme- 

 diately die out in England, but it was not likely to gain an 

 accession of strength in the more prosaic and unsettled times 

 of James and of the Charleses. There was doubtless plenty of 

 work to be done for both jeweller and goldsmith in the latter 

 part of the reign of Charles II., but it was more showy than 



